This invention relates to a storage and display elevator of the type which includes a series of platforms suspended on conveyor chains, with the conveyor chains extending about upper and lower pairs of rotatable sprockets, whereupon the platforms can be moved vertically and articles placed on the platforms can be stored and/or displayed in various positions about the elevator.
In certain fields of merchandising, a large stock of goods must be maintained in order to supply prospective customers with the various sizes, styles and colors available for each product. For example, a typical retail shoe store must stock shoes in multiple sizes and colors for each style shoe. This requirement is burdensome to the store proprietor in that a substantial amount of space is required to store the merchandise, and the merchandise is not immediately accessible to the customer or to the clerk serving a customer. Usually, one shoe of a pair of shoes is placed on display in a customer area, and the customer must ask a clerk to bring out the proper size and color of a particular style shoe. The clerk is required to leave the presence of the customer to search for the particular requested style, size and color, and during the absence of the clerk, the customer and all other customers in the store are not in the presence of the clerk, and the clerk cannot continue with his attempt to sell to the customer or to tend to other business in the customer area. Thus, a relatively small amount of service and sales contact in available from each clerk, and a relatively large number of clerks are required to tend to the retail business.
Various storage and display elevators have been developed in the past wherein articles are stored and displayed to retail customers. The prior art storage and display elevators usually comprise a pair of conveyor chains extending about pairs of vertically spaced sprockets, and a series of platforms suspended at their ends from the conveyor chains. When the platforms are moved laterally about the upper and lower sprockets, the lateral movement usually results in the platforms swinging back and forth like pendulums as the platforms are moved along their vertical paths. Usually, the articles most suitable for placement in a vertical storage and display elevator are small and light weight, such as jewelry, and the vertical storage and display elevator is also of a relatively small size and light in weight, with the vertical paths of the shelves being spread apart a substantial distance. The light weight platforms and articles minimize the tendency of the platforms to swing. When larger, heavier articles are placed on the storage and display platforms, the platforms tend to swing with greater amplitude as they are moved through the elevator system, creating a hazard of a clash between platforms moving in opposite directions on different flights of the conveyor chains of the system, and a hazard of damage to the articles stored and displayed in the vertical elevator.
In order to reduce the swinging of the storage and display platforms and the articles placed thereon, it has been found necessary to either slow down the movement of the platforms so as to reduce the tendency of the platforms and articles to swing as they are moved, or to positively guide the platform as they move through the elevator system. Of course, slowing the movement of the storage and display platforms is detrimental to the effect of the elevator system in that it requires more time to retrieve or otherwise handle the articles in the system. Also, when articles are placed on a storage and display platform, the articles may have their center of gravity off-set from the center of gravity of the shelf, causing the shelf to tilt in the elevator system. The tilting of one shelf may cause the tilted shelf to clash with another shelf as the shelves move with respect to one another.